Sunday, 12 June 2011

Strawberry tart

Nothing smells of an English summer like strawberries. I’m very lucky to live in Essex, which grows some of the tastiest, sweetest, prettiest strawberries in England…not that I’m biased!

I have wanted to make crème patisserie for ages and thought it would be the perfect accompaniment to the strawberries in this classic, unfussy tart.

My earliest memory of crème patisserie has to be the Marks & Spencer choux bun. Like everything (except my waistline) they were definitely bigger in the past, and the creamy light custard filling tasted like heaven! It was the sort of treat that you almost ate too quickly in your desire to consume it, and then regretted that you hadn’t savoured it more. Of course, the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) usually made sure there was more than one cake to be enjoyed…(see earlier comment about waistline!)

This crème patisserie recipe produced very thick, rich results and – while delicious – didn’t have the lightness I wanted for my tart.So I did what any proper gourmet (i.e. gutbucket) would do in the circumstances...I whisked some cream into it.I then achieved the light, custardy cream that I wanted.This example highlights one of life’s important lessons – always add cream.To be honest, it probably didn’t need it and whisking alone would’ve lightened the texture.But never let reality get in the way of adding cream.

This tart relies on great ingredients and should probably only be made in the summer when the strawberries are local, and packed with flavour. The simple shiny glaze gives a professional looking finish.

The buttery pastry is crisp and crumbly and provides a lovely textural contrast to the thick, creamy crème patisserie.

Cut a very large slice, sit back and enjoy!

Ingredients

For the pastry:250g plain flour125g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge and cubed50g caster sugar2 eggs

Start by making the pastry. Place the flour, butter and sugar into a food processor and blitz until you have breadcrumbs. (You can do this by hand with the old rubbing the butter into the flour method)

Add the eggs and blitz again.

Tip out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, with a little extra flour if necessary, bring the mixture into a dough.

Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 150°C/fan oven 130°C/300°F/Gas mark 2.

Roll out the pastry between two sheets of clingfilm until it is large enough to line a 25cm loose bottomed flan tin. There is no need to grease the tin as the pastry is so buttery. I found the pastry behaved really well and there was no tearing thus no patching needed. Leave any surplus pastry hanging over the edge.

Line the pastry with a sheet of baking paper and fill with baking beans and bake blind in the oven for 45 minutes. This sounds a long time but the temperature is very low so the pastry won’t burn.

Remove the paper and beans and, if the pastry looks wet, return to the oven for a further 5 minutes to dry it out.

When cool enough to touch, trim away the excess pastry.

Leave to cool and then store in an airtight container (the tart should only be built on the day of serving).

Now make the crème patisserie – this can also be made a day in advance and refrigerated until required.

Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until light and thick – don’t skimp on this stage, it will take several minutes.

Whisk in the flour.

Place the vanilla pod and milk into a saucepan and bring it to the boil slowly; take it off the heat as soon as it boils and remove the vanilla pod.

Pour the milk onto the egg and sugar mix and whisk all the time.

Return the mixture to the sauce pan and stir over a low heat until it comes back to the boil.

Stir all the time; you will feel the mixture start to thicken as it approaches boiling point.This won’t be a subtle thing – you will have no doubt that your liquid has firmed up!

If you find the crème patisserie becomes lumpy whisk it quickly, off the heat. Don’t panic though – you can always pass the mixture through a sieve.Some people are funny about this and think it’s a sign of failure - I always do this, just to be on the safe side, whether there are lumps or not – why be proud and risk it?

When the crème patisserie has thickened, remove the pan from the heat and press clingfilm onto the surface to stop a skin forming.

When it is cool, transfer it to a bowl and cover with clingfilm; refrigerate until you build the tart.

Add the cream to lighten your crème patisserie when you build the tart.Take the crème patisserie from the fridge and whisk in a large bowl – it will have set so whisking loosens it up.

Add cream, a tablespoon at a time, until you achieve the light consistency you require – mine took 4 tablespoons.(if you don’t mind a thicker crème patisserie omit the cream, but still whisk it to lighten the texture).

Now prepare the strawberries: wash them and hull them (this means remove the green leaves and the little white core you get in the middle).

When the strawberries have dried, you are ready to start building the tart: fill the pastry case with the crème patisserie and arrange the strawberries on top.

Now make the glaze for the strawberries: place the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring them to the boil, stirring occasionally to ensure that the sugar dissolves.

27 comments:

Yummmmm-yy! I love your life lesson of always adding cream- I too had an identical thought process last night with a denser-than-wanted chocolate tart... i just bunged in some cream! Perfect! And local strawberries this time of year? Nothing beats them!

I am addicted to strawberries at the moment, I feel they are a healthy snack! I always let them warm up to room temperature (if they have been kept in the fridge) before I eat them because they are so much more aromatic... mmmm! Beautiful tart!

Seriously drooling here CC! I adore fruit and custard tarts. The closest I got wa the fruit and custard damish I bought for my Mum (who is visiting) and me a couple of days ago. These look very fine indeed.

I adore strawberries and even planted some this year. I've even submitted a few to recipe contests because I enjoy them that much. I'll definitely be adding this recipe into my "make next" file. Cheers!Virginia

I made this tart for a family reunion, like I said. The crème patisserie had a nice consistency, but it came out quite sweet, so I spiced it up a little by adding a teaspoon of lemon zest and some juice. The recipe also got me a very large amount of pastry - I think I should have saved some of it for later and gone for a thinner pastry layer (my baking dish was about 27 cm in diameter). Other than that, it worked out pretty well... if only my great-aunt didn't forget to put the tart in the fridge after we brought it! (the creme quickly became liquid in the summer heat) Other than that, it was a moderate success :)

Pastry is always tricky because in different climates, on different days it will alter. It also depends on your oven - if yours is different to mine (which of course it is!) you'll find you need more/less pastry and longer/shorter cooking times.My advice would be never feel you need to use all the pastry - use what you need. The leftover amount will freeze, or you could just make some (bonus) jam tarts

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